Evaluation of the medical services provided to HIV-infected women during pregnancy

In the Republic of Moldova a strategy to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child has been implemented. It ensures the access of pregnant women to HIV counseling and testing rooms, early diagnosis of HIV infection, ARV treatment, provision with children’s nutrient mixtures, care and support conforming to the international recommendations. The objective of the article is the evaluation of medical services provided to women with HIV infection during the pregnancy for the consolidation and strengthening of the measures aimed at reducing the transmission of HIV infection from mother to fetus. In the majority of cases the training of HIV positive pregnant women about the ways of HIV transmission, preventive measures, medical supervision, ARV therapy, including prophylaxis, is conducted by an infectionist (88.46%), a family doctor (47.11%), an obstetrician-gynecologist (34.61%) and a volyntary counseling and testing unit consultant (17.30%). The HIV-positive women have demonstrated incomplete knowledge about the ways of transmission of HIV infection and its prevention. Around 12% of HIV-positive women have no access to condoms. In most cases (67.30%) HIV-positive women are supplied with condoms by NGOs. One-fourth of HIV positive pregnant women are taken in the medical records late enough that excludes the possibility of preventive ARV therapy in full. There is a risk of transmission of HIV infection from mother to child due to the breastfeeding the babies and limited access to the artificial nutrition for children during the first days after their births in hospital, identified in 5.76% of cases. Every other woman is stigmatized and discriminated by other pregnant women by being isolated

Accelerating progress of Milenium Development Goals 6 on HIV/AIDS in the Republic of Moldova

The Government is committed to maintaining good public health services, so combatting the socially-conditioned diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, remains a priority. Despite the Government’s commitments and effort that has been made in collaboration with the development partners, the incidence of HIV has risen. In 2011, in order to accelerate the sustainable progress of HIV/AIDS, the Governments and relevant stakeholders decided to apply the Development Goals of Millennium Acceleration Framework (MAF), the methodology endorsed by the United Nations Development Group. With the support from UNDP, WHO and other UN institutions, the application of the MAF has helped investigate the social and medical determinants of health and identify the potential barriers within and outside the health system – bottlenecks at socio-economic and institutional levels. MAF is also focused on the needs of socially vulnerable groups of people that bear the brunt of HIV epidemics. Economic and social marginalization, stigmatization and discrimination they face are the underlying reasons of their vulnerability to these diseases

Peculiarities of directions and causal agents’ distribution of tick-borne encephalitis in the Republic of Moldova

The aim of the study is to determine the circulation of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) causal agents in the Ixodidae ticks population and the evaluation of the TBE threat to public health. The species of ticks Ixodes ricinus, Dermacentor reticulatus, D. marginatus and Haemaphysalis punctata can be often met in the ecosystems of the Republic of Moldova. The species I. ricinus is the most numerous and widespread one, the fact that shows its high epidemiological significance. At the same time the species D. reticulatus, D. marginatus and H. punctata are the potential directions of TBE maintaining the TBE viruses in the environment. The laboratory results got by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) have indicated the TBE virus antigen in of 25.2% of the ticks, collected in the period of 2009-2012. Using the polymerase chain reaction method it has been established that on average the RNA of TBE virus has been 8.1% of all tested tick samples. The specific antibodies to tick-borne encephalitis virus have been identified in 9 (4%) tested human specimens. The rationalization of the system of epidemiological surveillance and control of tick-born encephalitis consists in developing and implementing a definition of the case for report on the basis of clinical and laboratory criteria, as well as the communication with epidemiological station, and studying to obtain standardized and comparable data